Peter Mieg (5 September 1906 – 7 December 1990) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Biography

Mieg was born in

Lenzburg Lenzburg is a town in the central region of the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Aargau and is the capital of the Lenzburg District. The town, founded in the Middle Ages, lies in the Seetal, Seetal valley, about 3 kilometres south of the Aare river. L ...

where he spent almost all his life. He studied

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

music history Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of ...

as well as

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and

German Literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

from 1927 to 1933. In the early 1930s Mieg became a journalist writing articles about art, music and literature for newspapers such as the ''Basler Nachrichten'', the ''Weltwoche'' and the '' Badener Tagblatt''. Between 1933 and 1939 he became friends with the conductor and patron

Paul Sacher Paul Sacher (28 April 190626 May 1999) was a Swiss conductor, patron and billionaire businessman. At the time of his death Sacher was majority shareholder of pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche and was considered the third richest person i ...

and the composers

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss-French composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. Honegger was a member of Les Six. For Halbreich, '' Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher'' is "more even ...

and Bohuslav Martinu.

Compositions

In the 1940s Mieg completed his musical formation with Frank Martin. His first important works were written in the 1950s in a very personal

neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

. From that time on he was commissioned by the

Tonhalle Orchester Zürich Tonhalle is a German word meaning "tone hall", a concert hall. It may refer to: *Tonhalle Düsseldorf Tonhalle Düsseldorf is a concert hall in Düsseldorf. It was built by the architect Wilhelm Kreis. The resident orchestra, the ''Düsseldorfer ...

(''Symphony'', 1958), the

Zurich Chamber Orchestra The Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Zürcher Kammerorchester; ZKO, German abbreviation) is a Swiss Orchestra, chamber orchestra based in Zurich. The ZKO's principal concert venue in Zurich is the Tonhalle (Zürich), Tonhalle. The ZKO also performs in Zu ...

(''Concerto per clavicembalo e orchestra da camera'', 1953, ''Concerto Veneziano'', 1955, the ''Concerto for oboe and orchestra'', 1957, the ''Concerto pour piano à quatre mains et orchestre à cordes'', 1980), the

Lucerne Festival Strings The Lucerne Festival Strings is one of Switzerland's most frequently touring chamber orchestras, which for decades was closely associated with the Lucerne School of Music, being for many years an "ensemble in residence". History The orchestra ...

(''Triple concerto dans le goût italien'', 1978) and many others. Mieg wrote some 135 compositions, including several

concertos A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The ty ...

(for piano, for violin, for flute, for 2 flutes, for harp, for cello, for piano and cello), a lot of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

and piano music (5

piano sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement (Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with two movemen ...

s).

Painting

In 1961 Mieg exhibited his gouaches for the first time. They mostly represent

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

and

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

. He had been painting since his childhood.

Family

Peter Mieg's grandaunt was Swiss composer and singer

Fanny Hünerwadel Fanny Hünerwadel (26 January 1826 – 27 April 1854) was a Swiss pianist, singer and composer. She sang and performed in Zurich, Paris and London, but died of typhus at the age of 28. She wrote seven piano songs, some of which were published aft ...

(1826-1854).

Bibliography

* Anna Kardos, Tom Hellat: ''Auf der Suche nach dem eigenen Klang – Der Komponist, Publizist und Maler Peter Mieg'', Hier und Jetzt, Baden 2016, * Silvia Kind: ''Peter Mieg'', in: Monologue.

Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, 2001, p. 226–235. * Michael Schneider: ''Der Komponist Peter Mieg: Leben – Werk – Rezeption'' (The composer Peter Mieg: Life - Work - Reception). Amadeus,

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

1995, . * Brigitte Morach-Müller (editor): ''Peter Mieg als Maler'' (Peter Mieg as a painter). With articles by Emil Maurer, Peter Mieg, Jean Rudolf von Salis and Edmond de Stoutz. Kromer, Lenzburg, 1984. * Reni Mertens & Walter Marti: ''Der Komponist, Maler, Schriftsteller und Journalist Peter Mieg'' (The composer, painter and journalist Peter Mieg). Film about Peter Mieg, 1980 * Uli Däster, Walter Kläy and Walter Labhart (editors): ''Peter Mieg. Eine Monographie'' (Peter Mieg. A Monography). Sauerländer, Aarau and Frankfurt 1976, .

External links

Official website

Peter Mieg
on the website o
musinfo.ch

Peter Mieg on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mieg, Peter 1906 births 1990 deaths People from Lenzburg Swiss Calvinist and Reformed Christians 20th-century Swiss classical composers Swiss classical composers 20th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters Swiss male classical composers 20th-century male musicians 20th-century Swiss male artists 20th-century Swiss composers